SOUTHERN RHODESIA happened to be the first country I visited
which had a colour bar; and 1 can remember the incredulity with which our party received the warning that, whatever other customs or laws we might feel like breaking, there was one which we must obey, no matter how urgent the necessity; we must always tise the door marked 'European.' The colour bar at that time was not discussed; it was taken for granted. Such an attitude is no longer possible; and I am glad to see the Central African Examiner, a journal established not so very long ago with the idea of providing a middle-of-the-road journal of African opinion, is taking a strong but eminently sensible line on the colour bar. The interesting thing about recent unhappy incidents in Southern Rhodesia is not the incidents themselves but the reaction to them which, surprisingly, has been `a spate of angry and shocked protest.' The Examiner points out that it is no use putting all the blame on a hotel owner who asks coloured visitors to leave; that may be what he is obliged to do by law. What is needed, it argues, are changes in the law. Naturally it will be a long time before old prejudices die, but it does seem that Southern Rhodesia is waking up to the fact that simple distinctions of colour are anomalous and evil : bad, the Examiner concludesjor European and non-European alike.
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